The bright light of the year was the knowledge that this publication appears to be avidly read in Copenhagen when AP Moller finally joined the other big LPG players (Exmar and Bergesen) and ordered their first speculative LNG ship of the new millennium at Samsung!

The Norwegian project, Snohvit, looked as if it may have received a final go-ahead before the end of the year, but government elections and new tax regimes caused a two-month delay. Project partners are eagerly awaiting the parliament decision, expected by 7th March 2002, to see if this ambitious project will finally fly. The high northern latitude of the site makes this plant an LNG engineer’s dream as he finally has cold water cooling!

Angola was raising expectations early in 2001 for a 2005 start up but by the end of the year this had slipped to 2007 at the earliest. No doubt the merger of Texaco and Chevron has caused some delay but the organisation of the proposed partnership with other oil companies in Angolan waters is the main reason. Any further delay for Angola could have long-term consequences as Nigeria may well surge ahead as the only real African LNG exporter and as Nigeria LNG seeks financial closing for trains four and five and talks of a new project near Escravos. War-torn Angola could suffer from wary financial investors who try to minimise risk exposure who could see Nigeria as a proven success story. Timing is critical for LNG projects to be successful, and missed commercial opportunities can cause years of delay.

Algeria continues in its usual format but there is talk of increased production, but LNG may have to give way to pipeline investment with a partnership that includes TotalFinaElf, proposing a second pipeline connecting Algeria and Spain. RasGas has started its expansion to service the Petronet LNG contract in India. Further expansion is planned for the Italian Edison contract which unlike the fob Petronet agreement will be ex-ship. The shipping contract for the Edison deal is now in the final stages of tender with five shipowners hoping to be lucky in securing a four-ship deal. Oman LNG was one of the projects suffering from the fall out of Enron’s Dabhol India collapse only months before the 20-year delivery contract was due to start. Indications of problems emerged early in 2001 when Enron was unable to receive due payment from the Maharashta State Electricity Board for electricity supplied from its Dabhol power plant (at that time fuelled by naphtha). The collapse of Dabhol also caused some concern to Mitsui OSK who had a LNG ship on order at Mitsubishi that was finally delivered in November 2001. This was the first example of old LNG "deja vu", with a ship ordered but no longer with a viable project. Fortunately a temporary (?) solution has been found with the vessel now chartered to Oman LNG for ex-ship deliveries to new short-term buyers for the lost Dabhol quantities. Abu Dhabi was also due to supply LNG to Dabhol, for smaller quantities, but little has been reported as to who or where these contract quantities will go. The western markets can absorb the LNG but the market price may not satisfy the exporter.